'Nobody Knew A Thing' About Audrey Hepburn's Love Life & That's Just The Way She Liked It

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Audrey Hepburn was one of the most glamorous icons of Old Hollywood, and also one of the most elusive. The Belgian-born actor graced the screen in movies seen by millions, starring in legendary romantic flicks from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" to "Roman Holiday." But few got a glimpse into her real love life. According to author Pamela Keogh, that's exactly how she wanted it.

"Audrey's big thing was discretion," Keogh, who penned the biography "Audrey Style," told People in August 2026. "And unlike some Hollywood stars, boy, you didn't know who she was seeing and what she was doing." Audrey Hepburn, who also had skincare secrets we still love today, was married to Mel Ferrer between 1954 and 1968. The following year she wed Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti, who had numerous affairs behind her back. But after their split in 1982, she found love again. "There was a big passionate thing with William Holden, but nobody really knew about it," Keogh went on. "Nobody knew a thing about Audrey, which is kind of cool."

Hepburn's son Luca Dotti, from her second marriage to Andrea, told the outlet that the "My Fair Lady" star was genuinely in love with the men she had relationships with, even if she didn't speak to the press about it. "I don't know if she was quality-wise loved back in the same manner," he mused in the interview. While she kept mum on the details, Hepburn herself did famously confirm, "I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it" (via Goodreads). Keeping her private life to herself helped to preserve the air of mystery and allure around her image, but it also meant that fans had no idea about the tough times she went through behind the scenes.

Audrey Hepburn enjoyed keeping her love life out of the spotlight, but she also chose not to openly discuss the more painful elements of her personal life, so fans didn't know the extent of her struggles until after her death in 1993. In 2020, her eldest son Sean Hepburn Ferrer revealed to Sky News that she'd had two miscarriages before she gave birth to him in 1960, and she mourned them alone in a time when the subject was taboo. These days, we discuss coping with loss and how to help your partner through a miscarriage, but there was none of that in the '60s.

In 2020, filmmaker Helena Coan released her documentary "Audrey," which gave fans an insight into another lifelong struggle that Hepburn was battling beneath the surface. In a 1992 interview shown for the first time in the documentary, the "Sabrina" star shared, "[My father leaving] was the first big blow I had as a child, it was a trauma that left a very big mark on me, it left me insecure for life" (via The Guardian). It's difficult for audiences to believe of a person synonymous with style, elegance, and beauty, but Hepburn was secretly struggling with confidence issues as a result of that experience.

"She suffered massively with insecurities about her looks and with men, and to hear her link them to her relationship with her father and her deep abandonment issues, to hear those intimate details was so strange," Coan explained, per The Guardian. "It was such a twist for someone who had always been so private." Hepburn did reconnect with her father as an adult to process the trauma, but it was a negative experience that, once more, she navigated alone.